Is Hep B vaccine helpful

Jun 27, 2005

Hello Dr McGovern.
You are an angel. I noticed you have taken time on weekends and even holidays to answer questions. I truly believe that you are not in medicine just to have a career but you are there to help people. And for that, I thank you and god bless you.
I just have a quick question.
Can people who are inactive HBsAg carriers benefit from regular HB vaccination? The reason why I ask this question is this. I was just diagnosed as an inactive carrier. HBsAg+, HBeAg-, HBeAb+, HBV DNA 800 copies/ml PCR. Knowing the stages of HB, I probably had millions of copies/ml at one point in the past. At that time my immune system kicked in and tried to get rid of it. It did a pretty good job because I now am inactive. I did a calculation based on MW of HBsAg being 24KD and the vaccine being 20mcg of HBsAg it comes out to roughly 5x10(13) copies/ml of body fluid for an average human. Isnt vaccination going to help some inactive carriers? Is the following study credible?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14562945&dopt=Abstract

thanks

Response from Dr. McGovern

Immunizations are not routinely given to people for an inactive carrier state. I would discuss any preliminary study results with your physician to see what he or she would recommend since this is not yet done in clinical practice.

This forum is designed for educational purposes only, and experts are not rendering medical, mental health, legal or other professional advice or services. If you have or suspect you may have a medical, mental health, legal or other problem that requires advice, consult your own caregiver, attorney or other qualified professional.

Experts appearing on this page are independent and are solely responsible for editing and fact-checking their material. Neither TheBody.com nor any advertiser is the publisher or speaker of posted visitors' questions or the experts' material.

The Body is a service of Remedy Health Media, LLC, 750 3rd Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017. The Body and its logos are trademarks of Remedy Health Media, LLC, and its subsidiaries, which owns the copyright of The Body's homepage, topic pages, page designs and HTML code. General Disclaimer: The Body is designed for educational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. The information provided through The Body should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. It is not a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, consult your health care provider.